Offline Ithor - That's My Ship Motherlovers
Previous Next The awkward silence in the cramped cockpit of the Jedi fighter is broken by the crackling of Gorbie's radio. "Please come in Terrorist Gorbie-wan Kenobi" Gorbie rolls his eyes. "This is going to follow me forever, yeesh." Turning his Zaeed-given radio to vox, he half-smiles at Stryder and responds. "This is Captain Gorbie-wan, go ahead" "This is communications for the joint Ithor command, please stand by for General Hhead. Please switch to encrypted channel 115521" "Standing by." A minute goes by until the radio crackles again. "This is General Hhead of the joint command. Scum, we request your assistance in saving our space station from a the infestation. There is also the matter of an infested special forces agent onboard." Gorbie grins. "I did warn your President about him. Has the infestation spread beyond the space station yet?" "Not yet, you will have to work fast" "Okay, that's no problem, we'll head straight there. Please stop shooting at us and the freighter we have. We have rescued over a thousand people, and will need a place to repatriate them." "They are not to return to Ithor" responds the General. "Okay, then we'll have to house them on Home One. They are all infected, but seem to be immune to the greater effects. " "Whatever" "Okay then, Gorbie out." The radio turned off, Gorbie turns to Stryder. "So, what's your plan now? Do you think you can help with this little situation?" Stryder doesn't take his eyes off nor his concentration off his flying. "It is my intention to complete my mission, with our without your help. If it means gaining the help of you Gorbie and your mercenary team, I will help you under this duress." "You know each of them are members of the Alliance To Restore The Republic. We were never really good at following orders, which is how we got into this mess. Head towards the space station... " Gorbie turns on his radio again. "Hey Wedge, we're heading towards the space station. Some bad shit going on over there, the Ithorian SpecOps has lost control of the situation. Go figure eh." During the somewhat awkward flight towards the space station, Jedi Paladin and Captain Gorbie-wan swap stories. Gorbie starts with his sector deployement, the message from HomeOne, and everything since. In return, Stryder tells Gorbie about himself, as one of Luke's early recruits into OWK's Paladin Army. With some pressing, he also tells Gorbie about being Skywalker's Padawan, after Luke had trained with Yoda, an epic Jedi Master. Interested to hear about his cousin, Gorbie presses Stryder. "So tell me about Luke..." Stryder takes a deep breath. "During the battles to free the Duro people, I have seen Paladin Skywalker's command over the force; It is complete, across Control, Alter, and Sense. Master Yoda says that there has been no other student who has been that strong in the force in his hundreds of years of existance. He also says his destiny is to save the galaxy. I have also forseen that Master Luke is destined to take over for Master Kenobi when he passes." "So what is your mission?" "We are to destroy a Tie Marine base in the Imperial Core. Untill you killed my entire team." "I would definitely want to help you with that, with my team of 'mercs', but we have a another enormous pressing threat, and that is of the infection and of the outsider enemies." "TIE Marines are an abonination, and are sending tears throughout the force. IF we do not stop them, they will forever prevent our access to these powers! Has OWK told you nothing?!?!?! Without these powers the Empire will surley expand to the Commonwealth, and oppress Trillions more sentients... never mind reduce our ability to deal with any other threats." "I agree, and I hope in time you will agree that the singular focus provided to you by my uncle to wipe these people out at all costs is not always the best way. Stay with us; we are not evil. Let us learn from each other and tackle our common issues. Now, onwards. Since I was stationed in the outer rim, my knowledge is rusty. What has come of the Alliance between Jedi and Alliance To Restore The Republic?" "The Paladin's have allied themselves with the Rebels, and have stationed a minimum of two Jedi Paladins per Rebel Cruiser. Other Paladins are working to keep the peace in the Commonwealth, as the black market and the free flow of goods has been hampered without the imperials to police." "And what of politics in the core?" "In the Core Imperium, all remains well as the newswires report, but the population has been enslaved under martial law..." The conversation comes to a halt as the hulking super-structure of the space station comes in view. The shuttle and the jedi fighter dock with Home One, since it's obvious that many of the controls and docking areas are going to be hostile to the heros. Meanwhile, the hangar is used as a staging area for the refugees from the infection. A make-shift triage area is created for the injured. The its left, a briefing area, where the able-bodied are congregating. Gorbie is one of the last to join, as he is speaking - one way - to Ackbar. No real progress made he lets out a long sigh, salutes and walks over to the briefing area, lighting a cigar on the way. "Alright folks, we've been asked by Ithorian Joint Command to help recover the space station. It seems they've lost control of the situation. We have some Ithorian military here, we'd like you to set up defences in this hangar. There are definitely some infected still on the ship, and you need to be ready for them. Zaeed, you take a team and secure the rest of Home One, that's going to be the most important for us right now - we know the place, and we kind of need it to house all these people. I'll take a smaller team and see what we can do about the space station. Wedge, can you give us air cover, and destroying any escape pods that may try to get the the surface? General agreement quickly leads to busy hands preparing. Zaeed takes his team thoughout HomeOne, clearing decks as they go. Gorbie, Stryder, and a tailing R2D2 head towards the space station, not knowing what to expect. Zombie infected everywhere, the heros cut their way through the hallways of the space station. Some of the walls themselves are starting to get infected, and Gorbie wonders if the Ithorian Spec Ops ever had control of the situation at all. The trio happen upon an escape pod, half filled with space station crew trying to fend off an infected that had gotten inside. Both rushing inside, Stryder and Gorbie deal with the infected very quickly. "Press the eject button!" cries one of the crew. "No! Stop!" replies Gorbie. "You carry with you infection. Leaving now means you infect others not on the space station." "I don't care about them, I want out of this hell hole" "Think of your families. Do you want them to suffer as well?" The Ithorian thinks for a moment, and looks at the eject button. He looks back to Gorbie, looking sternly. He looks back at the button again, and then back at Gorbie, this time with a lit lightsabre. His eyes fixated on the glowing green blade (his former blue light sabre having been destroyed by Tachi-Kenobi, until he recovered hers... not a great trade) the crew member slowly sits back down. Gorbie exerts his authority: "Go to docking port 17, that's where Home One is. Radio on frequency 13 that you've arrived. Watch out for the knight." The crew members file out. "Lieutenant R2, where do we have to get you so that you can disable the rest of the these life pods?" "beeep beep, zip, beeep bop" "Engineering is not too far from here, probably 20 minutes. Let's head out." The trio head towards the engineering bay, killing infected upon the way. After a couple of minutes walking, Stryder pauses for a moment and addresses Gorbie. "Did you just call the droid Lieutenant? "Oh yes, a bit of a 'development'. These droids are sentient, and in fact, quite smart. Lt. R2 has saved my hide a couple times already. Far beyond the capabilities of most soldiers in the alliance. He asked for acknowledgement as a race of beings, I saw no real problem with this, Ackbar was in agreement. My own personal touch was to give him a a commission in the Alliance. Free thinkers only in this outfit Stryder. Hope you don't get left behind." "Right. Forgive me if I don't address him the same way." "Oh that's no problem I'll give you at least a couple days' observation to adjust. Trust me. Lt R2 will likely save our asses on this space station. You'll see." Gorbie had seen this before. Biological beings attached to the walls, and in fact, certain consoles were completely gone, replaced by what seemed to be a living being. "R2, see what you can do about powering down the station as much as possible. The Jedi Paladin and I will explore a bit further down. You know how to reach us if you see any signs of trouble." The two Jedi walk 100 meters further from engineering, and contrary to Home One, the area, including engineering, is mostly bare of any infected. Ever vigilant, the two dart around corners, expecting the worst each time, yet nothing is there. Moments later, a crash ahead of them. They stand two hundred metres from where they left R2, and an enormous infected emerges. Footsteps everywhere, dozens and dozens of infected come from the other way, cornering them in the hallway with no where to go. Behind them stood another grossly mutated infected Ithorian of similar proportions of the first tank. The radio crackles, Wedge on the other side. "Hey Gorbie, Ackbar just kind of stired and said something, I couldn't make it out, he must be improving though. Are you guys okay? " Gorbie slowly walks away from the tank infected, hoping the dozens of smaller infected might be a better start. His wrist radio slowly comes to his mouth. He looks at Stryder while messaging Wedge. "It's a trap..." Gorbie's log back to Alliance command would later recount an ugly battle with the tanks in close quarters, several times it had felt the battle was not going their way. At one particular point, Gorbie speaks of a point where Stryder gets caught and grappled by a tank. "Here is this brash Paladin, thinking he's seen everything in the world. He goes for a big strike on the tank, and drops his light sabre. He gets grabbed by the arms, and the tank is about to rip him apart. I quickly surged under the tank, and deballed him, causing him extreme pain. He drops Stryder to the ground, and then kicks me square in the ass halfway down the hall. Had trouble sitting for days." Both tanks defated, both Jedi's lean against the wall catching their breath. Between breaths, Stryder says "I don't get it. I'm told you're evil, and I have orders that you must pay for Ithor. I'm supposed to kill, yet here we are fighting together, with you risking your life to save mine." "Oh, don't be so humble, you didn't do too badly yourself. I have the advantage of having fought these guys a couple times before. You're definitely better than me with this thing though..." Gorbie waves Tachi-Kenobi's lightsabre in a cumbersome way. The pair begin to walk back to where R2 was stationed. Gorbie continues, "See the problem here is that your belief system is black and white. An eye for an eye. You think I caused all this pain, which technically I did. I did do everything in my power to stop it though, and it was never our intention. If you think about it, my "merc" squad actually tried to limit the casualties. No defence of what happened though, it's awful. But why would we then jump down and try to save as many people as possible? Why are we here on this space station? I learned something about the dark side in my travels, and nearly fully succumbed to the dark side, it's singular belief in power and strength at all costs. I actually believed I could do whatever I wanted, and that's a scary thought. However here is the conclusion I came to: Singular thought good is just as bad as singular thought bad. We are looking for balance in the force here. It doesn't mean killing all the Jenserai, it doesn't mean destorying all who oppose us without thought or remorse. That makes us as bad as they are. Judgement should be the responsibility of the civilian courts. No one person can be judge, jury and executioner." Stryder takes a moment to think, the responds. "Do you feel remorse as to what happened?" "Of course I do! I wish I could have prevented it. I did not intend it, nor was there anything I could do. I'm on the same side here, why are we going to fight over this? Do you think you're the last Jedi sent here to kill me and my friends? Why must there be more bloodshed over this?!" Stryder contemplates Gorbie's words as they reach R2. Walking into the engineering core room, they see a pile of infected, including some oddly mutated ones on the ground. "Beep bee boop beepp ziiip" says R2, rather sheepishly. "Good job Lt" says Gorbie, bending down over an infected and ripping off a cred chit. "No more problems with life pods, I presume." R2 whistles in agreement. A noise comes from one of the storage rooms further in the engineering department. Lightsabres and pistols raised, the Jedis approach the door. "Knock knock knock; Knock, knock, knock; knock knock knock" Gorbie deactivates his lightsabre and laughs. "It's an SOS". Sounds like someone sealed the door on themselves. Let's get them free..." A few minutes later a dozen or so Ithorians emerge from the storage closet, a cheer emerges from them as they leave their self created prison. Gorbie addresses them, giving them directions to Home One. As they group beings leaving, one of them stops next to Gorbie. "You are hurt, human. Allow me to bandage your wounds" "Oh, it's fine, really, don't worry" "I insist. You are severey bleeding" The Ithorian patches Gorbie up smiles at the heros, and walks away. Taking a few steps, he turns around, tossing a few bundles from his pack. "These are Ithorian med-packs. Far better than galactic standard. You will need them. You might want to look in the barracks, we had been communicating with some non-infected there. Sector B332, down a level." The heros don't even pause to consider any other alternative. R2, having downloaded the maps of the station, leads the way, and the trio emerge at the barracks, the doors sealed shut. A working comm system is on the wall. Gorbie grabs it. "Rescue party to traps Ithorians, please come in" "Stay away!!" "Don't worry, I've got this one... I've talked people out of a room before..." says Gorbie, as he sits down next to the door. "Let's start from my beginnings on Tattoine" ----- Once the last surviving crew member was safely in the hangar bay of Home One, we went through and contained all the critical areas of the space station. Total number of saved space station crew: 85 Total number of saved space station soldiers: 15 Total number of saved space station civilians: 43 Once this was done, we secured Home One's hangar bay... Gorebie looks up from writing his Alliance report to see Wedge leaning on the door frame of his office. "Why are you still writing those things? You know they hate you right?" says Wedge. "I am still a service member of the Alliance" "No, you're AWOL technically. And they want you for mass murder." Gorbie sighs, and keeps writing in his data pad. With Home One as our new home, we secured the Galley, 3 Hangars, Engineering Bay, and CIC, closing off 90% of the ship - mostly non-critical areas. Interestingly, we were able to secure hundreds of infected, to be housed in a secured hangar bay until such time as a cure is found. Secured in Home One's hangar are a dozen Ithorian Starfighters, 1 Ithorian Space Transport, 1 Ithorian Troop Carrier. We also secured an Ithorian Heavy Cruiser that was attempting to depart with infected onboard. We've parked it closeby. Admiral Ackbar continues to be mostly comatose. Unfortunately he has not responded to my many attempts to communicate with him. We are ensuring he has the utmost care '' May The Force Be With You,'' '' Captain Gorbie-wan Kenobi'' Wedge pokes his head in the room again. "Enemy Knight spotted, want to go deal with him?" Gorbie closes his datapad, grabs his light sabre and pistol and follows Wedge to the far reaches of the ship. The Enemy Knight stands there, mostly motionless. Category:Offline